The present invention relates to a communication apparatus operable to communicate with a plurality of devices, each device having a respective identifier
Cell phones are known to include press-to-talk functionality. This allows a user to contact other users in a group in a manner akin to a “walkie talkie”. A user can define groups of other push-to-talk users, and initiate group calls to a group. Group members that are currently registered with the PTT server, and whose presence is set to available, if applicable, will receive the group call. In a half duplex system, such as push-to-talk, only one user can talk at any one time. The voice of the user who is speaking is provided on a loudspeaker of the cell phones of all the other users. Some phones allow default audio output options, such as choosing between loudspeaker or handset audio output.
As one of a number of users may talk at any given time, there is sometimes confusion over which member of the group is speaking. This usually requires a user to identify him or herself before speaking. This hinders free-flowing conversation.
WO-A-03/022001 describes a method of managing a group call. The contents of this document is herein incorporated by reference. In this document each user may attribute a particular “spatial location” to each of the users in the group call. For example, a user may want the voice of a first user to come from his right side, the voice of a second user to come from directly in front of him and the voice of a third user to come from his left side. However, this requires the user to firstly know which of the other users are available to speak and then to spend time arranging the position of each of the other users. A similar system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,734,724 the contents of which also are hereby incorporated by reference.
It is an aim of the present invention to mitigate problems with the prior art by reducing the burden on the user to position each of the other users, whilst still being able to identify each user from their spatial location.